HEALTH CARE COSTS

THE #1 & #2 CAUSES OF SKY-ROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS

In 1960 healthcare cost $149 dollars annually per person.  In 2019 healthcare cost was estimated at $11,559 dollars annually per person or 79 times the 1960 amount. 

Source: Health spending per capita in US 1960-2020 | Statista

Population growth was 186 million in 1960 to 329 million in 2019 or a 1.77 times increase. 1.77 times population increase versus 79 times health care cost.  
$1 in 1960 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $8.68 in 2020, a difference of $7.68 over 60 years. Or a 13 time increase of purchasing power versus a 79 times increase in health care. Plus or minus here and there, healthcare increased approximately 6 times faster than the purchasing value of the dollar. Modern incredible medical technology added to the cost, as well as savings, but the cost is dwarfed by ongoing chronic illness and for-profit health care.  The top two major health cost factors are for-profit medical care and chronic poor diet choices. 

Adding to the overall problem, real estate home purchases and apartment rents have risen, depending on the area, from 10 to 40 times since 1960.  I paid $50.00 for a two bedroom apartment in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights in 1959. It could rent for $2500. a month now. That’s 50 times more. Adjusted for inflation it is still 6X+- more expensive for housing these days. But at least, as the neighborhood gentrifies, people can leave the area for more affordable living conditions ---- if they can; is homelessness a viable option? Healthwise, they bring their chronic issues with them wherever they go.

The United States is facing an affordable housing crisis. Nearly two-thirds of renters nationwide say they can’t afford to buy a home, and saving for that down payment isn’t going to get easier anytime soon: Home prices are rising at twice the rate of wage growth. A family of 4 can pay up to $20,000 yearly for health insurance.  According to research from the advocacy group Home1, 11 million Americans (roughly the population of New York City and Chicago combined) spend more than half their paycheck on rent. Harvard researchers found that in 2016, nearly half of renters were cost-burdened (defined as spending 30 percent or more of their income on rent), compared with 20 percent in 1960.  https://www.curbed.com/2019/5/15/18617763/affordable-housing-policy-rent-real-estate-apartment   
I remember when 25% of income was considered the maximum by the Bank of America to still be affordable for housing. B of A Founder AP Giannini was a people person. Sadly, times and lending attitudes have changed allowing excessive debt. Follow the money.

Approximately 80% of healthcare costs are due to chronic illness. Illness that can mostly be avoided by lifestyle changes in diet and exercise.  Don’t blame the drug industry. They will charge as much as they can get and most often make you sicker in the process. The key is to not need the prescription drugs in the first place. As an analogy, suppose in a 6-story apartment house, the bathroom on the top floor starts to leak and it is never repaired. How long before the entire building is damp, wet, mold-infested, odorous, unstable, un-livable and condemned?

If we keep eating like we are, our body, like the apartment house, is getting sick and sicker.  Watch this video about compounding (adding interest onto interest year after year after year). It may be the most important video you have ever watched.

Prescription drug side effects, boomer aging and poor diets will make the compounding negatives increase faster and faster. There are older relatives needing constant care from daughters and sons, or being tended to in rest homes that cost upwards of $10,000 a month. A tip of the iceberg?  I found my mom in a rest home in Florida on 29 medications.  

We have yet to grasp the magnitude of the problems that lie ahead. Aside from boomers, the American population as a whole is digging their graves with their forks via processed, fried, sugary, fast and lifeless snack foods. Obesity, heart conditions, COPD and diabetes are epidemic. Both the healthcare cost and reasons for them must be greatly reduced or we are sure to become further overburdened and bankrupt as a nation. We MUST add personal dietary responsibility and remove the for-profit aspect of health (sick) care as these costs are not sustainable. Think prevention. “We do not have to get sick, ever”.  To properly study disease, study health and do what the healthy folk do.

To pave the way for prevention, regeneration and the awesome power of the body to heal itself you must start with the fundamentals: breathing, mostly plant based diets, moderate exercise and supplemental oxygen.